Diane Burko

Off Faga'alu Coast, January 6, 2018, 2018
Archival pigment print
15 x 15"
Edition 1 of 3

Courtesy of Cristin Tierney Gallery

Artist Statement
After focusing for several decades on monumental geological formations and waterways through landscape painting, Burko has shifted in the past 20 years to analyze the impact of industrial and colonial activity on those same landscapes. Burko's practice seeks to visually emulsify interconnected subjects- extraction, deforestation, environmental justice, indigenous genocide, ecological degradation- so the connection between them becomes impossible to ignore. While her work deals with impending climate catastrophe, rather than lingering in dystopia, it celebrates the sublimity of the landscape by honoring the intricate geological and political webs that shape the identity of a place. Her current body of work uses large-scale mixed media painting to examine climate issues impacting the Amazon Rainforest.

Artist Bio
Diane Burko (b. 1945, Brooklyn) is an American artist based in Philadelphia whose practice is situated at the intersection of art, science, and the environment. Burko has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, including shows at the Royal Academy of Art in London, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Minneapolis Art Institute, National Academy of Sciences, Phillips Collection, Palmer Museum of Art, RISD Museum of Art, Tang Museum, Wesleyan University Center for the Arts. She has been awarded residencies in Giverny, Bellagio, the Arctic Circle, the Amazon Rainforest and the Atlantic Rainforest. In 2021, her solo exhibition Seeing Climate Change at the American University Museum was cited in the New York Times as one of the best shows of 2021. Throughout her practice, Burko especially cherishes her collaborations with researchers in the sciences. She learns the most from "bearing witness" to the land.

dianeburko.com